Android tools are ‘horrendous,’ says Facebook mobile developer

Maybe one of the reasons Facebook has so many Apple iPhone users than Android is because some of the social network’s developers aren’t infatuated with the Android developer environment. In fact, one of them seems to despise it.

Joe Hewitt made the original Facebook for Apple iPhone app and some would say that one was still better than the current Android app. On Twitter, Hewitt sounded off about how poor he thinks that little, green robot is.

On Twitter, he said “Android tools are horrendous, OS is hideous, but the absence of big brother telling me what to do gives it a slight edge.”

Hewitt made a big stink about how much he hates the Apple App Store approval process and he no longer works on the iOS Facebook app but he hasn’t been extremely satisfied with Android.

“The more I work with Android the more it reminds me of Windows … as in, it’s really flexible, agnostic, and developer-friendly, but also really sloppily designed,” he said.

This is obviously just one man’s opinion but I’ve heard similar remarks from multiple developers. This could be why the Apple iPhone has a larger catalog of products than the Android Market. Facebook seems to have made its Apple iPhone app its top mobile priority as this is the only app that can access the location-sharing service Facebook Places.

It’s not just volume though, as most of the big-time money seems to be in the Apple App Store. We’ve heard tales of Android developers making some nice coin but we still haven’t heard the multiple get-rich-quickly stores that sprung from the iPhone ecosystem.

Hopefully, that will change soon, as the little green robot is growing like gangbusters. It recently outsold all other smartphone operating systems in the United States and the momentum doesn’t seem to be fading. Google should also be working on making its dev tools better because the company knows how important apps are in this market.

What a bunch of horse crap. Look at the rest of his twitter. Just another apple fanboi scratching for a reason why people should buy the iPhone; because he makes more money off of it.

Marin Perez

I picked up this story because this developer actually asked off the Apple iPhone app because of the App Store reviews process, so he’s not just a blind fanboi.

jumpymonkey

(1)“Android tools are horrendous, OS is hideous…” (2)“The more I work with Android the more it reminds me of Windows …” (3)”it’s really flexible, agnostic, and developer-friendly, ”

Which is it Joe? 1, 2, or 3

Sandor

What a nonsense article. In fact, the developer tools like ADB and the Eclipse-integrated SDK/AVD manager are working very well. The problem with Android is mainly the lack of documentation, in my experience.

Maybe Marin should stop writing “articles” about Android as he obviously has no idea what he is talking about.

A few more of these articles and ITM will totally lose its credibility for me. I know Marin already has…

Ryan Waddell

I’ve never used Apple’s dev tools to build an app, but I can vouch for the fact that it’s a pain in the butt to develop apps for Android. But it’s not as bad as Blackberry! At least in Android, you can make an XML layout for your UI… No such luck in the BB world

ShittyFBApp

Well, now I see why the android app sucks compared to the BB and iPhone versions (I’ve used all three). This guy has an attitude about the whole thing and nothing will change that, unless they get someone who actually enjoys programming in Java and for android. Are we ever getting push notifications for this damn app?!? If not, I’m just dumping facebook altogether. Been way too long waiting for just the basic features that the other platforms have had for years.